Iron supporting linkage



April 29, 1958 H. FRICK IRON SUPPORTING LINKAGE 3 SheetS -Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 18, 1954 Til-5.1

INVENTOR. Mia/01' fi/(A April 29, 1958- H. L. FRICK 2,832,159

IRON SUPPORTING LINKAGE Filed Oct. 18, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

April '29, 1958 H. FRlCK 2,832,159.

IRON SUPPORTING LINKAGE Filed Oct. 18, 1954 s Sheets-Sheet s saw amass snort snrP-onrnso LINKAGE Application finisher 18, 1954, Serial No. 462,751

3 Claims. (Cl. 38-30) This invention relates generally to an iron supporting linkage and more particularly to a linkage for supporting an iron for movement parallel to an ironing board and in which means are provided for permitting the full weight of the iron to rest on the board under the influence of slight manual pressure and for lifting the iron above the board when said manual pressure is removed.

ironing mechanisms of this general type have been proposed in Patent No. 2,644,255 and in application Serial No. 306,156 now Patent No. 2,688,812 filed August 25, 1952 in the name of E. E. Poster. The devices disclosed therein are provided with a lifting spring to hold the iron in or to raise it to a position above the board. A counterbalance spring has been provided to substantiaily overcome the force of the lifting spring when the iron is lowered to its operative position on the board.

it is an object of the invention to provide an improved device for holding the iron in its lowered position under slight manual pressure throughout a relatively wide range of vertical variations such as are encountered because of variations in thickness of material, irregularities in the ironing board and non-parallelism of the supporting arm and board.

Another object of the invention is to provide a linkage of simple, compact construction etlicient and reliable in operation and relatively uneil'ected by shock and temperature changes.

The above and other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view with parts in section of an iron supporting linkage embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a partial view similar to Figure 1 showing the iron in its raised position;

Figure 3 is a sectional view of the counterbalance spring assembly shown in Figures 1 and 2; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the counterbalance spring assembly.

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the latch member in the idle position.

Referring now to the drawings, numeral iii designates a supporting arm, which may be of the type described in U. S. Patent No. 2,648,146, constructed and arranged so that the free end thereof is movable in a plane above and parallel to the plane of the ironing board. The sup porting linkage of the present invention is adapted to suspend a conventional hand iron ill from the arm lit for vertical movement into engagement with articles on the board and comprises a hollow link or bracket 1.4 rigidly secured to the iron handle 16 and pivoted at 18 to an upper link 2i which is connected to a ball joint 2?. for pivotal movement about the arm ill.

Upper link 2i; is hollow and contains a tension spring 24 which at one end is secured to an adjustable member 26 connected to the ball joint end of the upper link and at the other end is secured to a pin in link 14 at a point spaced from pivot it Spring urges the links to the position shown in Figure 2 in which link lies substantially horizontal to hold iron 12 above the ironing board. When the iron is pushed down into engagement with the board, as shown in Figure 1, the line of action of spring 24 is moved closer to the pivot l8. Thus as the iron is lowered the increased tensional force of spring is oti'set by a reduced moment arm so that the lifting t on iron remains substantially constant. If desired, the lifting force of the arm may actually be decreased as the iron is lowered by the proper location of pin 28 in relation to pivot 18.

in the lowered position of the iron, however, spring 2 is adjusted to exert a lifting force suflicient to lift the iron at all times. The manual force required to hold the iron in pressing engagement with the board in opposition to spring would be objectionably high if other assistance were not provided. To reduce the amount of manual effort required to hold the iron down a counterbalance spring Elil and latching mechanism assembly, designated generally at 32, is provided to counteract or reduce the effect of spring 24. Latching mechanism assembly 32, selectively renders counterbalance spring operative or inoperative and comprises a cam 34, a spring cage or housing 36, a latch 38 and a latch handle 40. Sounterbalance spring 36, earn 34 and housing 36 are pivoted about a pin 41 secured to link 14. Latch 38 is rotatably mounted on a pivot 42 secured to the link 14 and latch handle is pivotally mounted on a pin 44 secured to housing as. Thus is can be seen that all of the pivot points of latching mechanism assembly 32 are secured in the single rigid link 14.

Spring 3% is of the torsion or safety-pin type having one end located adjacent the undersurface of cam 34 and the other end secured to a retaining member comprising a first plate 46 which extends through the side walls of housing 36 and a second plate 43 held in adjustably opposed relation to the first plate by a bolt 50. Housing 36 is formed with a rearwardly extending protrusion or abutment 532 which is arranged to conveniently strike a portion of latch handle 44 Latch handle 40 is adapted to progressively or successively engage abutment 52 and one end of latch 33, the latter being formed at the other end for engagement with a roller 54 rotatably secured in the housing 36.

Cam 34 is curved and has a point of inflection 56 between the free end thereof and pivot 41. A roller 58 rotatably secured to a projection of link 20 is adapted to engage cam 34- and to move from the free end of said cam toward the pivot point thereof as the iron is moved downwardly. Cam 34 is formed with a depending portion to extending on either side of housing 36 and adapted to engage the protruding portions of plate 46 to limit the upward movement of said cam.

in the operation of the device a different series of events is obtained depending on whether or not the operator holds the latch handle 4G in depressed position while lowering the iron into engagement with the board. If the iron is lowered with the latch handle 4!]! free to move, the latching mechanism 32 is ineffective and the depression 01 iron 12 from the position shown in Figure 2 to the position shown in Figure 1 causes roller 58 to move from the free end of cam 34 toward the pivot, thereby depressing the cam and rotating the latching assembly 32 counterclockwise about pin 41.. When the iron has reached the extreme lowered position roller 525 will have passed the point of inflection 56 and the latch ing mechanism 32 have been rotated sufiiciently to cause handle i'll to be raised some distance above the iron handle To render the counterbalance spring 3i? effective against spring 24 the operator presses down on latch handle to strike abutment 52 thereby moving housing 345 clockwise about pin 41. Slightly before 3 spring 36 has reached its fully etiective position latch handle 40 strikes one end of latch 38 causing the other end to engage roller 54 and move the abutment 52 away from the handle 4d.

With latch 31'; in engaged position with roller 54 the reaction force of spring 30 is absorbed almost entirely by pivot 42, rather than by the operators hand which would be the case if the latching mechanism 32 were provided only with abutment 52. The latch 33 is constructed and arranged so that a component of the reaction force of.

spring 24 is unbalanced in a direction to disengage latch 38 immediately upon the release of latch handle 49. When the iron is in the lowered position and latching mechanism 32 is in eltective position the force of spring 24 is counterbalanced and the full weight of the iron is permitted to rest on the board. The only manual efiort required by the operator to maintain the iron in lowered position is a slight pressure, the weight of the hand, on the latch handle it! to overcome the unbalanced force tending to disengage latch 38.

If the latch handle 40 is held down as the iron is lowered, latch 38 will engage roller 54 and hold the latching assembly 32 in effective position. During the initial downward movement of the iron, roller 53 depresses cam 34 causing spring 343 to be deflected. As roller 58 passes the point of inflection 56 on cam 34, the line of action of spring 30 crosses pivot 18 and the force of spring 36 thereafter acts in opposition to the force of lifting spring 24-. The effect of spring 30 is regulated by the contour of cam 34 and the adjustment of bolt 5th to provide a force counterbalancing the force of spring 24 throughout a relatively wide range of vertical variations. Latch 38, pivot 42 and roller 54 are constructed and arranged so that a component of the reaction force of spring 30 acts in a direction to disengage the latch.

The location of the point of inflection 56 is rather critical to the obtainance of uniform operational results for ironing devices of the type described. Variations in the point of inflection from one device to another will vary the maximum thickness of material that the ironing device can handle. in severe cases of improper location of point of inflection 56 the iron supporting linkage will not permit the full weight of the iron to rest pen the board. it is extremely ditiicult, if not impossible, to form spring 30 with cam contour sufficiently accurately to provide uniform operation throughout a large number of devices. The point of inflection 5'6 may, however, be accurately located on cam 34 through the utilization of ordinary mass production methods such as molding, die casting or stamping. Cam 34 is preferably made from substantially rigid material which will maintain its shape throughout a long period of use.

The sequential operation of latching mechanism 32 through abutment 52 and latch 3%? permits the counterbalance spring to be rendered ettective with substantially maximum mechanical advantage for the limited space available even though the latch handle is not held down while the iron is lowered. The reduction of the unbalanced reaction force of spring 3d to a component sufiicient just to disengage the latch permits the iron to be operated throughout a relatively wide range of vertical variation with imperceptible change in the manual force required to hold the spring 31) in effective position.

All of the pivot points of the iron supporting linkage are located in a single compact link 14 which renders the mechanism relatively insensitive to shock and temperature changes.

While only one embodiment of the invention has been shown and described in detail, it will be understood that this is illustrative only and not to be taken as a definition of the scope of the invention, reference being had for that purpose to the appended claims.

i claim:

1. A supporting linkage for an iron comprising a first iink formed at one end for connection to an iron, a second link pivoted to the other end of said first link, a spring connected to the links urging them in one direction about their pivotal interconnection, a pivot secured to said first link, a cam rotatably connected to said pivot and having a free end spaced from said pivot, a cam follower formed on said second link movable from the free end of said cam toward the pivot when the links are moved in the other direction about their pivotal interconnection, a torsion spring secured intermediate its ends to said pivot and adapted at one end to engage said cam, 21. housin for said torsion spring rotatably mounted on said pivot, an adjustable stop member in said housing adapted to engage the other end of said torsion spring, a stop element on said housing adapted to limit the rotation of said cam in one direction, first and second projections on said housing, a latch pivoted in said first link adapted to engage said second projection, a latch handle pivoted in said first link adapted to successively engage said first projection and said latch to hold said housing against said rotation.

2. A supporting linkage for an iron comprising a bracket formed at one end for connection to an iron, a link pivotally connected at one end to said bracket and formed at the other end for connection to a supporting arm which is adapted to support said other end for parallel movement above an ironing board, a spring connected to said link and bracket to urge them about their pivotal interconnection to raise the iron, a resilient member in said bracket adapted to selectively oppose said spring, a housing having an operative connection with said member, a latch pivotally mounted in said bracket, a latch engageable portion formed on said housing, a projection on said housing, selectively actuable latch handle secured in said bracket adapted to successively engage said projection and said latch to move said latch into engagement with latch engageable portion to thereby render said member etfective to oppose said spring.

3. A supporting linkage for an iron comprising a first link formed at one end for connection to an iron, a second link pivoted to the other end of said first link, a spring connected to the links urging them in one direction about their pivotal interconnection, a resilient member in said first link, a housing having first and second portions thereon, an operative connection between said housing and said member, and means adapted to engage said first and second portions to render said member effective to oppose said spring.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,688,812 Foster Sept. 14, 1954 

